Woody Allen directing a musical and having stars who you wouldn't associate as singers initially could cause alarm bells, but I found Everyone Says I Love You much better than expected if not among Allen's best(a long way from his worst though). The film looks great with skilled photography and a great use of three of the world's most beautiful cities, New York in springtime looks enchanting here and Venice and Paris look breath-taking too. The songs are very pleasant and work really well within the film, Looking at You stood out as my personal favourite, not surprising seeing as it is Cole Porter. The production numbers and choreography are neither overblown or amateurish, not quite classic musical standard and a little silly at times but really enjoyable stuff. Highlights were the dancing ghosts in the funeral scene, the dancing number on the banks of the Seine and the Marx Brothers-like ending, it is not everyday when you see Goldie Hawn levitating either. The dialogue is toned down from what you usually expect from Woody Allen, not as blunt or as savage(as seen in Deconstructing Harry, which I consider Allen's last masterpiece), but it is still as sparkling and witty. The story is very warm and charming while showing a good amount of interesting insight on relationships, remarkably also it could be seen as one of Allen's most accessible. There are a few neurotic characters, particularly Allen's and Edward Norton's, but the characters mostly are quite likable compared to other Allen films(not that that is a bad thing). The singing is not amazing(wasn't particularly impressed by Julia Roberts or the dubbed singer for Drew Barrymore) but very little of it is bad either, Alan Alda has the best singing of the cast which added to Looking at You being a highlight. The performances are great, though Natalie Portman and Billy Crudup are under-used. Allen directs most assuredly and his performance comes off well. Goldie Hawn is good too and while he is a rather awkward dancer Ed Norton sports a not bad singing voice, but the best performances come from Alan Alda, Natasha Lyonne and a hilarious Tim Roth(who could have had more to do). Overall, a different film from Allen and while not one of his best, considering how films having directors who try to do something different generally have very mixed results, Everyone Says I Love You came off surprisingly excellently. 9/10 Bethany Cox

"Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" says the song. Well in Woody Allen's case, love can be described as many-handled theme.Indeed, whether portrayed as an inexhaustible source of intellectual torments, an unreachable holy grail or an emotional dead-end, love has always been in the core of Woody Allen's oeuvre. Even in his zaniest days, Allen featured romantic walks in a bucolic site or deep interactions in a well-chosen spot of New York or any place of the world. The seminal "Take the Money and Run", had a very touching romantic subplot leading to much more magnitude in "Manhattan" and "Hannah of Her Sisters" before being treated in a skeptical and disillusioned way in "Husbands and Wives" from the light of Allen's separation with Mia Farrow.This brief preamble is to show that almost every facet of love has been depicted by Woody Allen. So, with such a title as "Everyone Says I Love You", his twenty-something film, I didn't know how high to put my expectations. I guess Roger Ebert's enthusiastic endorsement made me expect fireworks of emotions, something on the same arousing level as "Manhattan"'s opening sequence …. But what I got was a firecracker. The film is cute, charming, with sweet interactions between enamored characters, but nothing affected me like all the films I mentioned. Even the parts set in Venice and Paris, instead of enhancing the romance, irritated me with their superficial postcard quality.I understand that superficiality was intended to embody the lightheartedness and spontaneity of these characters struck by Cupid's arrow. I understand Allen didn't plan to preach or speak philosophical statements about love, but just let the hearts express through spontaneous outbursts of singing and dancing. But this is where we come to the main flaw, which alas is the reason-to-be of the film: the music. I enjoyed the hospital sequence, the part where a bunch of ghosts from beyond the grave give the living some precious advice, and the surrealistic climax in Paris where Goldie Hawn, in a superbly executed sequence started floating in the air. But the rest of the music didn't touch me, and my heart is not made of stone.I've got to hand it though to Woody for the risk he took by letting the actors perform with their own voice, it startles in the beginning but we quickly get used to it. When the film opened with young Holden (Edward Norton) sining his love to Skylar, an upper-class girl of Manhattan (Drew Barrymore), I respected Allen's audacity for materializing this idea that we all sing when we're happy and how we sing hardly matters. But how greater would the surprise have been if the songs were really catchy and didn't seem randomly perturb the narrative structure. Maybe there weren't many musicals at that time so the film had a fresh quality but the soundtrack was not the highlight, which is saying a lot for a musical.A good point was the titular "Everyone", which relied on a great ensemble. There is Goldie Hawn as Steffi, the guilty-ridden rich mother and Alan Alda as Bob, her husband, both the best friends of the neurotic Joe, Steffi-ex-husband, contemplating suicide after many failed romances and played by you-know-who. There is also a scene-stealing performance from Natasha Lyonne, as Steffi and Joe's daughter DJ, trying to get her father in touch with Von, Julia Roberts, a therapist whom she happens to know all her secrets and fantasies. There were also fine performances from Lukas Haas as the Republican son (the reasons of his political orientation was the kind of comedy gold the film needed in more quantity) and last, but not least, Tim Roth made a believable released prison mate falling in love with Skylar and causing her to breakup.The film had the same potential than "Hannah and Her Sisters", but I was disappointed by the easy ways Allen chose to close his characters' arcs. The kind of emotionality provided by Dianne Weist' last line from "Hannah" was totally missing, which can be forgivable since it's a comedy, but the wit was frustratingly inexistent and only confined to some predictable gags such as a wedding ring, hidden in a cake and getting swallowed by the future bride. This also would have been forgettable if it wasn't for the central romance between Woody Allen and Julia Roberts. We know it's doomed from the beginning, because of the whole plotting, they had to break up so Joe would finally realize he's still in love with Steffi and can enjoy such good moments like a Groucho Marx party in Paris, one of these things that makes life worth living. But his separation was nowhere close to the level of poignancy or comedy reached by "Manhattan".Just like Skylar who breaks up with Holden to eventually reconcile, Joe cheats with Von, she goes with him, until realizing that having fulfilled her fantasy of living with the perfect man, she's got nothing much to fantasize about, it was cynically anticlimactic, and convincing, but for a film that pretends to be a comedy, I expected more, at least, enough to give Julia Roberts a shining moment and not reduce her to the beautiful actress who stars in a Woody Allen film. That also was announcing another Allenian trend when he became Europe's darling, each film raising the big question about his casting. Allen has always been one of my favorite directors, but when he became a 'hip' phenomenon, something of his touch was kind of lost.Now, after watching his interview he gave to a French magazine in the DVD features, I started to look at his film with more indulgence, respecting his desire to make a personal tribute to old-fashioned musicals. But as much as I wanted to love "Everyone Says I Love You", it was nowhere close to Allen's top 10 best films, not even to his next film, "Deconstructing Harry", which I thought was perfect.

Now I did like the old school style direction when it came to this musical. And the musical numbers is good and even cute in some cases. But despite how it tries to go in that sweet and meaningful direction of it all, it just didn't work all together. This has multiple different subplots going but it just wasn't all that effective. Even if it does kinda tie together in the end for the most part. With Woody Allen's character story as the primary. Although I didn't really watch this for Woody Allen but for Edward Norton, who is almost impossible to dislike. This just wasn't all that absorbing despite it trying to be sweet and charming, I just didn't fall for it. The plot is about characters trying to find there path, which revolves around love, sex, fantasies, politics, enjoying life, Christian and atheist views. It even tries to be witty and edgy but wasn't feeling it. Like I said it does tie together in the end but not all that well. Fans of Woody Allen might like this film, it does have a lot of his trademarks in this. Woody Allen put a lot of ideas into this movie, but everything just seemed so rushed and poorly developed. It seem to lack heart and goes more towards opinionated life views, which isn't even all that deep. Edward Norton is always cool though. And the musical number and choreography is good but also forgettable. This movie is about a hour and a half long but felt longer. It's disappointing since this has a good cast.3.6/10

What a disappointment but I have to say that I knew from the first scene that this would not be one of his best. The songs are extremely average, nothing spectacular about them at all! And most of the characters are uninteresting shells.Some of the scenes (in fact most of them) seem like early rehearsal. Especially the parts with Tim Roth who usually is a very talented actor.To make things worse there's just a few funny jokes in here. In fact other than the narration from Natasha Lyonne, a few decently funny moments between Alda and his republican son and Allens regular character + a dance group consisting of Grouco Marx look-a-likes are the only worthwhile parts of the film.It felt extremely uninspired and rather annoying at times. What was the Julia Robers sub-plot for example was extremely unfunny and just plain annoying.It seemed like this film didn't know what to make fun of or how to do it. Most of the time the dialog is just tame and uninteresting and it just seems like it tries so hard without making it.That said Natasha Lyonne and Alan Alda was great. Allen was good but weaker than usual. Again a few funny moments. I actually laughed out loud once or twice but overall this was just decent and by far Woody Allens weakest film.